Been windsurfing nearly 30 years, have ridden about every type of board there is except formula. Somehow riding a barn door with a fin as long as your leg does not seem to me to be too much fun. Yes they are fast and go up wind like a bat out of hell. Turning must br a bit of a chore no? I'm looking for something to do in light wind that is fast and fun, and can do a good turn. Mostly I sail a Starboard Kombat 107 with a 5.8 or 7.5. It's not fun to schlog with. Neither is a Bic Techno 283, which I seldom sail. Mostly I just like going as fast as I can, but like a board that is fun to turn. What is your experience with these boards? I have no interest in racing. I've also not tried any of the newer short wide funboards, as I guess they don't schlog any better than what I already have. Winds here are light, gusty, and prone to dying and shifting direction. Long Island Sound. I need to get out on the water more. 10-15 times a year is just not enough!

As I have said before, I'm advocating the Angulo Sumo 150 Ltr board.
I have one, and I ride it with a 9.5 in 10MPH winds on a full plane, plus
it will turn better than a formula board, and be more pleasant on a
beam reach. I weigh 180 lbs and am 6’3”.

-Craig

slinky wrote:

Been windsurfing nearly 30 years, have ridden about every type of board there is except formula. Somehow riding a barn door with a fin as long as your leg does not seem to me to be too much fun. Yes they are fast and go up wind like a bat out of hell. Turning must br a bit of a chore no? I'm looking for something to do in light wind that is fast and fun, and can do a good turn. Mostly I sail a Starboard Kombat 107 with a 5.8 or 7.5. It's not fun to schlog with. Neither is a Bic Techno 283, which I seldom sail. Mostly I just like going as fast as I can, but like a board that is fun to turn. What is your experience with these boards? I have no interest in racing. I've also not tried any of the newer short wide funboards, as I guess they don't schlog any better than what I already have. Winds here are light, gusty, and prone to dying and shifting direction. Long Island Sound. I need to get out on the water more. 10-15 times a year is just not enough!

I have a Formula and a large freeride in the same mold so to speak as the Angulo, its a 135L Tabou Rocket.
the Rocket is much more enjoyable. The only time the F may have a plus is very light wind offering a wider platform to just not attempt planing.

The F would offer sooner rides but I feel it need a 9.0+m sail. 8.5m just didn't do it justice.

lighter in weigh 155_________________K4 fins
4Boards....May the fours be with you

PWC. Twice the speed, big air off boat wakes or swell, straight upwind, FAR greater maneuverability (especially on a standup), none of these billboard-sized sails, 250 days a year even in NY, no dependence on wind, do it on your own schedule, racing, tricks, freestyle ...

Formula gear has come a very, very long way in the last ten years. The sails are very nice to use, and the boards no longer fly away downwind nor punish you in chop. Everything is easier to tune because the rocker is very refined and not especially variable across brands as well as the fact that the sails feel light with very little of the migrating draft common in the earlier days of FW.

Modern FW gear provides a ton of fun if you are after the ultimate in light wind shortboarding. I love longboards, but there is nothing like being lit up and planing in 9 knots. The water is flat, the apparent wind feels like 25 knots true going upwind and sending it off the wind is a lesson in measured courage.

If you like adrenalin with your windsurfing, its available well before whitecaps arrive.

The downsides exist, particularly with the fragility and emphasis on tuning the FW gear. Yet if all you want to do is blast around and are willing to give up some upwind and downwind angle, FW gear works great as freeride gear because it will plane up earlier than anything else even when on smaller sails. So you can have your cake and eat it, too. Ignore the 12.0 sails and 70cm fins. Buy instead a 9.5 and 65. You will plane as quickly but will be more comfortable on reaching angles. Your reaching speed should be nearly the same as someone on fast freeride gear but you will always know that you just need to head a bit upwind to drop them!

Don't hate the FW gear. There's a lot of very current but slightly used gear on the market that will allow the use of one sail and two fins across about 15 knots of wind speed. Try that with the average freeride kit. The only thing made that covers such range on one sail is a longboard with a purpose-designed sail, and much of that range includes powered-up, non-planing sailing._________________Support Your Sport. Join US Windsurfing!
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I think you want a very light 80cm wide all around board like Starboard Futura or the like. It will increase your wind range a lot even if you don't go up in sail size. I went through bigger board, bigger sail routine (never formula) but ended up hating big sails. I currently use a BIC Nova 165 (80 cm wide) as a compromise for my learning kids, and I can tell it would be a lot more fun and less work on my legs if it was 6 lbs lighter. Even as heavy as it is, it planes up on a 7.5 a lot earlier than my 115 liter board. dhmark

Not a FW hater, I love my 2011 Exocet FW board but where FW falls short for me is in light winds on small lakes. FW just doesn’t jibe as well as an 80-90 cm wide freeride board. My AHD GTS planes just as early as my FW, it just can’t go as deep down wind or as high up wind but on a small lake it is a moot point so I choose based on jibing ability. For open water like Long Island Sound I would choose FW.

Longtime slalom sailor, but rode the KineticFormula95cm for one year.
G/f just borrowed an L-8. That's Slab '08 Formula. Got a 60 Deb M, using mostly 7.3 5 cambered sails.
It's DIFFERENT. It jibes fine (have never fallen or dropped a sail with Formula boards), but it's not the same G-force, weight on back foot, fully committed type of jibe that a slalom board can do. I've watched as some of the better jibes laydown their Formula with 10's, but the feel is still not the same as slalom board jibing. I used to use a 9.5 with that old board.
Upwind it slaughter's anything, of course, downwind you can scare yourself silly. Carrying it around is a major pain in the butt. Stuffing it into my van is a pain.
I agree with the other folks, since I'm in my infancy of modern Formula sailing. I've got 2 days in since 2002 on Formula. Give me a Freeride board with a powerful 8 meter sail any day in winds around 12 -18.
I might change my mind, of course.

IMHO, the true alternative to a dedicated FW board is the Starboard UltraSonic. It planes nearly as quickly in no small part thanks to its incredibly light weight but jibes much more easily. It's also faster. Faster on the level of a PWA slalom board compared to a good freeride board. Both require a certain amount of commitment -keeping the hammer down. Each will rip a jibe with high levels of technique but the UltraSonic makes it so much easier to do in chop due to its lower volume nose.

That said, I think jibing is less about the board and more about the sailor when it comes down to it. Case in point is my favorite example from over 20 years ago, when Robby Naish and Nevin Sayre were competing at the US Open in Corpus. The winds were fairly high, so Nevin took a course-slalom board for the modified M course, while Robby stuck with his trusty course racing board. Robby kept up with Nevin through the jibes and beat him at the end. By all accounts, it was one of the greatest course racing battles in the history of professional windsurfing._________________Support Your Sport. Join US Windsurfing!
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Used to sail against Robbie and Nevin in SanFrancisco.
I wonder... given say, another 20 Formula days, will my perception of the feel of the jibes change?
I watch MikePercy lay down his 10 on F.
I've seen Al and Soheil duck jibe their 9's, backwind and duck tack, and come into the beach at 27mph for a boom dragging full speed laydown jibe.
But will I ever embrace the Formula board concept?
I"m 150 lbs., can plane up pretty early without huge sails and wide boards. Pumping is my forte'.
Maybe another few days, and I'll rethink it.
Right now, it appears I plane up about the same time with my 6.5 and 100 liter 58 wide board, as the 200lb'sers do with 10's and L-10's.
Maybe there IS something to the 120 lbs rider with a 76 cm RRD slalom and 6.0 1991 sail.

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